From Religion to Christ by Peter Jeffery
FROM RELIGION TO CHRIST
Peter Jeffery
John chapter 3. Jesus and the Pharisee having an earnest and serious conversation and Jesus proceeding to teach this man one of the most basic doctrines of the Christian faith - the doctrine of regeneration, of being born again. We do not become Christians as a result of Bible knowledge or of understanding theology but Jesus says if we are to be Christians we must be born again. When Jesus said, must, he meant there was no alternative.
John chapter 4 tells of a woman who had a lone encounter with Jesus just like Nicodemus. The man and the woman were intellectually, morally and socially, poles apart, but what they had in common, namely an encounter with Jesus, was of far more importance and of lasting consequence than anything else that was true of them. We all need a personal encounter with the Saviour and the message of the Gospel is that it is just as possible for us as it was for Nicodemus.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He was a religious leader and teacher (verse 10) He was a man of prominence in the community. The Pharisees were a very strict religious group who bitterly opposed Jesus. Every reference in NT finds them contradicting Jesus. Along with the priests they took a prominent part in planning His death. Jesus called them hypocrites - they were white washed sepulchers (a stone casket), all nice and clean on the outside but inside full of dead men`s bones.
Pharisees were salvation by works party. They had reduced the glorious God given religion of the Jews to a set of man-made laws, many of which were quite ridiculous.
Why was Nicodemus coming to Jesus? Was he becoming to see the emptiness of his religion? Verse 2 - he had heard and seen something of the ministry of Jesus. Man-made religion will always leave a person where it left Nicodemus - verse 3 no hope of seeing heaven and therefore on the way to hell. Man-made religion has no answer to man`s greatest problems which is sin. Man`s greatest problem is that because of his sin he is unacceptable to the Holy God. Jesus says that as a consequence of our sin we perish - verse 16 and are already under the just condemnation of God - verse 18. Man made religion will always leave us in this world without God and without hope.
Nicodemus is totally confused - verse 4. He cannot understand spiritual concepts and he interprets them in a literal way that makes them appear nonsense. All sorts of counter questions flood into his mind which are as irrelevant and absurd as "surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother`s womb to be born." What Nicodemus is doing is not thinking but reacting in such a way as to shut out the truth of the Gospel. Christianity never by-passes a man`s mind. It demands that we think, that we apply our minds as well as our hearts to God`s truth.
Here is a man with plenty of formal religion but with no real experience of God. What brings Nicodemus to Jesus? Perhaps it was an awareness of the emptiness of his life. His religion was not filling this emptiness. Nicodemus had his fill of religion and probably he had many friends, enough money and plenty of things to do and places to go but still his life was empty. Then in his emptiness he comes into contact with Jesus. Not the personal contact we see in this chapter but the first contact alluded to in verse 2 and which points back to chapter 2 verses 23 - 25.
Nicodemus first hears of Jesus, then he observes Him and he is impressed. He hears about Jesus. He cannot understand everything about Jesus but 2 things stand out and he mentions them in verse 2. The teaching and the power of Jesus are so extraordinary that there is only one possible explanation - God is with Him. So he has a very high estimation of Jesus.
Chapter 2 - Born Again
Many equate born again with being converted or being saved, and the terms become interchangeable as if they all mean exactly the same thing. They do not mean the same. Born again is not the same as conversion, no more than justification is exactly the same as redemption.
Professor Murray "regeneration is the beginning of all saving grace in us, and all saving grace in exercise on our part proceeds from the fountain of regeneration. We are not born again by faith or repentance or conversion; we repent and believe because we have been regenerated."
Faith, repentance, belief are all things that God demands we do They are our response to the Gospel. But we cannot do them if we are dead in sin. In order to be able to respond to spiritual truths we must first be born again. This precedes everything and it is the work of God alone. The word translated "again" literally means "from above." New birth is the work of God the Holy Spirit. Being born again is the initial step in salvation. Jesus is telling us that man in sin does not need patching up with religion, morality or education. He needs a complete new beginning.
We need to be born again, with an ability again to respond to God. This is exactly what the Gospel offers us and only the Gospel can do this. Spiritual new birth gives the sinner a new start with a new nature, a new heart. This can only be done by God.
The new birth is a spiritual birth, not a physical birth as Nicodemus seems to think in verse 4. The physical sheds light on the spiritual. In our physical birth we contribute nothing. It was the result of a process initiated by our parents. So too, in the spiritual birth. It is initiated by God our heavenly Father. We are born again from above. Without a physical birth we could have no physical existence; so too without a spiritual birth we have no spiritual life. Man is born in sin with a nature already alien to God. We are spiritually dead. New birth gives us a spiritual existence.
"You must be born again". "You" Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, a religious leader of the Jews, a man admired and respected and probably quite rightly so. This man needed to be born again, as much as any drug addict or criminal and so do we all.
"must" why must? Why is Jesus so insistent upon this. He does not bring new birth before Nicodemus as an option for him to consider. The reason for this imperative is given in verse 6 "flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." Jesus is saying that sinful human nature can only produce sinful human nature. "To become spiritual and fit for communion with God, nothing less is required than the entrance of the spirit of God into our hearts." J C Ryle
What does being born again do to change this awful condition? First of all it brings spiritual life where previously there was spiritual death. Man because of sin is dead to God. There is only one cure for death and it is not religion, nor education, nor culture. The only answer is life. Life comes only from God.
New birth also enables us now that we are no longer spiritually dead to respond to the spiritual truths that we beginning to understand. We are now enabled to believe and have faith in Christ. God commands us to believe it and repent.
God brings sinners under the sound of the Word. The Gospel shows us our true condition. All have sinned, the good respectable people and the moral outcasts. The Word convinces us that we need to be born again. Only in the Word of God are we shown what God has done in and through the Lord Jesus Christ to deal with our sin.
Chapter 3 - The Evidence of New Birth
How do we know if someone is born again? What are the signs that lead one to believe that this great work of God has taken place? This question needs to be addressed for 3 very important reasons:
First for the sake of the Christian who lacks assurance or for some reason loses assurance.
Second for the benefit of those who think they are Christians but are not.
Thirdly so that when a profession of faith is made Christians may have some guidelines to indicate whether or not it is a genuine work of God.
A person makes a profession of faith and claims that he is now born again. He has become a Christian. You cannot take this on face value! This is being realistic and responsible. You have to look for evidence that this profession is genuine. No one can have a saving encounter with Jesus without the emotions being involved but that is not the same as emotionalism - when only the emotions are involved. Such a profession of faith in Christ will soon prove to be false. By being genuine and sincere - a true work of Holy Spirit because being born again means being born from above. When someone makes a profession of faith you have to look for signs of spiritual life. A change of belief, of attitude and of behaviour will be inevitable if this claim is genuine.
1 John 5 verse 1 - change in belief. He will know and believe with no doubt that Jesus is the Christ.
1 John 2 verse 29, chapter 3 verse 9 and chapter 5 verse 18 - change in behaviour. The born again man moves in the realm of righteousness not sin.
1 John 5 verse 4 - change in attitude. The world does not dominate the Christian`s thinking.
1 John 4 verse 7 - change in relationships. Being born again brings the love of God into the center of a person`s life and this results in change of relationships.
"This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother." John 3 verse 10
Paralleling the physical and spiritual births. When a child is born certain things happen that show you that all is well and the baby is healthy - cries, sucks, moves and rests. The born again person cries to God in praise, dependence, hope and trust. Prayer is an evidence of genuine new birth.
A new born baby nurses. He feels a hunger for food and if he does not get it he makes a terrible noise. Peter says the new born Christian has a similar hunger for spiritual food. He listens to the word preached and he reads the Bible regularly. He wants to learn and discuss and question - why - because he can`t help it. He is spiritually hungry and must be satisfied. A new born baby moves. He turns his head, moves his limbs and later he will crawl and eventually walk. Similarly the new born moves in his new spiritual life. He is eager to explore and discover things and be useful in the service of God. He has to sort out priorities. Spiritual life means spiritual activity.
The new born baby rests. He sleeps a great deal. The new born Christian learns to rest in the Lord. There he finds his strength and sustenance. "I have stilled and quieted my soul: like a weaned child with its mother" Psalm 131 verse 2
Chapter 4 - Water and Wind
How do we become born again? John 3 verses 5, 6 and 8 Jesus says 3 times that being born again means being born of the Spirit. It is to be born from above - it is the work of God. If a person is born again it is as the result of a sovereign activity of God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given in Acts 2 so that the Christians might have the power and authority to preach the Gospel in such a way that people would be brought from spiritual death to spiritual life. John 16 Jesus said the Holy Spirit when he comes will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.
In John 3 verse 5 Jesus tells us how God brings about regeneration. It is by water and the Spirit. Jesus is stating here how God brings about the miracle of the new birth. He is telling us what leads up to it, what God uses.
Consider verse 5 to be describing God`s instruments in bringing about regeneration. In scripture water is used as a symbol for the Word (Ephesians 5 verse 26). "For thy word hath quickened me." Psalm 119 verse 50. "He chose to give us birth through the Word of Truth" James 1 verse 18. "For you have been born again ... through the living and enduring word of God" 1 Peter 1 verses 18 - 23.
In verse 8 Jesus uses the symbol of wind and this is clearly meant to illustrate the independence and power of the Holy Spirit. The wind cannot be seen or controlled. Its power is awesome. The wind acts in its own sovereign way and all we can do is to feel its influence and see its effects. The Spirit cannot be manipulated or controlled. He works when and where he wills with an awesome majesty and irrestible power.
How does God use water and wind, the Word and the Spirit in the new birth? Acts 2 Day of Pentecost God brings about the salvation of 3000 people.
Firstly God brings men and women to hear the Gospel - Romans 10 verse 17 "faith comes by hearing the Word of God." God uses the strange phenomena of violent wind and tongues to gather the crowd. The tongues they heard were not meaningless babble but the declaration of the wonders of God. When this crowd of diverse nationalities was gathered, Peter preached the gospel. Miraculously the Spirit allowed each individual listener to hear it in his native language. If a sinner is to be saved he must hear the Word of God.
Sinners need to hear this Gospel and all the essential ingredients of Gospel preaching are found in Peter`s sermon on Pentecost: God`s sovereign purpose, the person and work of Jesus, man`s sin and guilt and the call to repentance.
Secondly the Holy Spirit begins to work on these hearers of the Word. When the people saw the signs and wonders it produced 2 groups - honest inquirers and those who ridiculed the whole thing. But when the Word is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit a third group emerges - those who receive the Word in faith and repentance.
The Holy Spirit took the Word preached and by it convicted them of their sin. What they read cut them to the heart. The Word made a deep and devastating impression upon them and it did so because of the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. Many people go to a church where the Gospel is preached but they never understand what they hear. Many do not listen, as soon as the text is announced they switch off. But when the Holy Spirit is at work the reaction is different. People listen. They see their own sin and guilt. They are convicted and cry out "What must we do?"
The water and wind, the Word and the Spirit alone can bring a sinner to this position. And the answer to the convicted sinner`s cry is always the same - repent.
Chapter 5 - Christ Lifted Up
Nicodemus was intelligent religious man and very familiar with Old Testament. As a Pharisee he recognised the truth of what was being said about Jesus, that no man spoke with the authority of this man. His reaction to what Jesus was saying was `how can this be?` Verse 10 Jesus told him "You are Israel`s teacher and do you not understand these things?" His religious background was an obstacle to spiritual understanding. He had been brought up with certain preconceived doctrines that he obviously accepted as true so that when he was confused with the Truth as it was Jesus, his religious beliefs got in the way of true belief. There are few obstacles more of a hindrance to true faith than religion. There is no one who will react so strongly against the biblical accusation that all men and women are sinners under the judgment and wrath of God as the religious man.
Jesus now takes him back to Numbers 21 "just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life." verse 14. The people of Israel were in the wilderness under the judgment of God because of a previous rebellion but God was good to them and gave them water from the rock and provided daily food in the form of manna. But they were impatient and complained against God, and they exaggerated their problem. There is no water they said but of course there was and they said they detested the miserable food. God sent poisonous snakes among them. This was God`s judgment. Many Israelites died and at last the people realised that it was because of their sin. They turned to Moses to mediate with God for them. God in his mercy answered Moses` prayer and though he did not remove the snakes he provided an answer.
Moses was to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole so that everyone could see it. If any one was bitten by a snake and its poison was beginning to do its deadly work, if they looked to that provision of God`s grace, the bronze snake, they would not die but live. Jesus says to Nicodemus, even as Moses did that, so too, must He the Son of Man be lifted up. We are told in John 12 verses 32 - 33 this was a reference to his death. Jesus is saying that the action of Moses illustrates perfectly how Jesus saves men from their sin and gives them new life.
Every time we sin, no matter what the sin is, we are in fact rejecting God`s way and going our own way. We are saying that the things of God are not good for us and that we know better. That is why we find prayer so boring and the Bble so irrelevant. These provisions of God`s grace are as detestable to the ordinary man as the manna was to the Israelites.
Sin brings its consequences - the Children of Israel died in the wilderness. The wages of sin is still death and every town in the country has its monuments to this fact - cemeteries! The real cause of death is sin. Is there an answer? Is there any way guilty sinners can escape this inevitable judgment? God alone provides an answer. Not religion! God`s answer is Jesus and this is why Jesus says he must be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
Numbers 21 verse 7 - the people admitted "we have sinned". There was a confession of guilt and by implication there was repentance. There was simply a confession of sin and guilt and a plea for mercy. it was then that God provided them his answer. There is no salvation without repentance and there can be no repentance without conviction of sin.
There was only one remedy. God`s only answer to our sin and guilt is Jesus lifted up on the cross. Jesus died as our substitute on the cross. He died as the just for the unjust. He bore our sins in his body on the cross. God laid on him all our sin and guilt and Jesus became the scapegoat. This is the innocent substitute taking away the sin of the guilty.
The command of God to the Israelites in the desert was to look to His provision of love and mercy and live. The command of the Gospel to guilty sinners is to look to Jesus and believe in Him as our sin-bearer and Saviour - and live. The bronze serpent was God`s only way to avoid physical death and Jesus is God`s only way to avoid spiritual death. To look to Jesus means to believe. It means to turn as a guilty hell-deserving sinner to God`s provision of grace and mercy.
Death is the wages of sin. We are all sinners and therefore we will all die and this does not mean only the death of the body, but the eternal judgment of God in hell. The only answer to this awful state is God`s answer. Jesus said he was to be lifted up on the cross so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
Chapter 6 - God so loved the world
The Gospel starts with an activity of God and leads on to demand a response from man The order is important. Man is called upon to respond to an action of God. The initiative is God`s. If God had done nothing to save us then we could do nothing. In so many areas of life we are not in control of our own destiny but caught up and subject to forces and pressures, conditions and circumstances beyond our control.
Jesus says in verse 18 that the sinner is condemned already. As a consequence we will perish and perish means eternal judgment in hell. In verses 5 and 6 he went even further and said there is nothing we can do about this terrible condition. That God should love the world is amazing when you consider that by and large most people in the world have no time for God. There is no love or respect for God, only resentment and blatant opposition.
It is not that God loved the world but that He so loved. The little word "so" immediately confronts us with something exceptional and extraordinary. That God should love the world is amazing but that He should do it in the way He did is beyond comprehension. This love was not a general sort of benevolence but a particular act - He gave His only begotten Son. God gave Jesus to die on the cross in place of guilty sinners.
Paul describes the undeserved nature of God`s love for us in the words of Romans 5 verses 6 - 8 "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God shows love to the ungodly. Ungodly means unlike God. Man was made in the image of God but sin has so disfigured this image that man is now ungodly.
The greatest thing about man is that he was made to know and enjoy God. Sin has robbed us of that. we have no rights nor claims. Man is in a hopeless position but the gospel says Christ died for the ungodly because God loves sinners, who do not, indeed cannot deserve it.
1 John 4 verse 10 "This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." Ungodly man does not love God, nor seek to be loved by God. Man`s nature and mind are so darkened by sin that he is ignorant of God`s love and mercy. He takes the blessings of life for granted - health, food, breath, the beauty of creation are never acknowledged as gifts of God. We talk about mother nature while the bible talks about the creator God. We talk about the laws of nature while the bible talks about the will and providence of God. Because we exclude God we do not seek Him but he seeks us! In Jesus, God came to seek and to save the lost. It was not that we loved Him but He loved us. And what a love!
Propitiation = atoning sacrifice - means that on the cross, bearing our sin and guilt. Jesus endured the wrath of God instead of us and paid fully on our behalf the debt we owed to God for breaking His holy law. On the cross our Saviour cried "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" The Holy God forsook His Son because he was our sin-bearer - "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5 verse 21). Jesus was "stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted" (Isaiah 53 verse 4)
At Calvary our Lord made it possible for a holy God to pardon us even though we were sinners and had broken His holy law. God dealt with the problem of sin in the only way that could satisfy his holy justice and enable him to move in and break the power of Satan in the lives of lost sinners. Specifically by punishing the only man that qualified to be our substitute by virtue of His sinlessness. He punished the only man who could, after enduring the wrath of God equivalent to our being in Hell for all eternity, take up His own life again and rise from the grave - this man was also God himself.
"How great is the love that the Father has lavished upon us" (1 John 3 verse 1) Lavished speaks of abundance and tells us that God`s love is no small, carefully measured thing but a love unimaginable in its beauty and bounty. It is this lavished love that enables God to give his Son for us.
Chapter 7 - whoever
From the heart of God there comes to all men and women whoever we are and whatever we are this wondrous love. God loves us so much that He not only allowed Jesus to die instead of us but He planned it. Isaiah 53 verse 10 "it was the Lord`s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer." That is love. No one has ever loved us like that and no one ever could.
This love becomes even more radiant when we appreciate who it is that God loves. He loves the world, but when God looks down from heaven upon mankind, what does he see? Psalm 14 verses 2 and 3 "The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt, there is no one who does good not even one."
This is a devastating criticism of mankind - all have turned aside, all are corrupt and there is not one person who does good. There are no exceptions. Holiness and justice would demand that such guilty creatures should receive everlasting damnation. That is what the word "perish" means. This is what God`s justice demands but his love says "no". God loves His people and He will satisfy the just demands of His own law by imputing their sin and guilt to His sinless son and by punishing those sins borne by Jesus. So Jesus dies on behalf of sinners, to make atonement for their sin. Love produces salvation. God`s holiness makes the cross necessary but it is God`s love that makes it possible. God demands a response from us. The response God wants is to be found in words "whoever believes in Him.
"Whoever" is big word, an encouraging word, a word full of hope and potential. It is all embracing. "Whoever" removes every excuse a sinner may have for not coming to the Saviour. Never will a man appear in the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will be able to say that he longed and desired and willed, and sought earnestly to come but was refused.
To the Pharisees God`s love was for the Jews only and not for the Gentiles. "Whoever" shatters that illusion.
John Brown`s Discourses and Sayings of our Lord "the revelation of mercy made in the Gospel refers to men as sinners not as elect sinners. The invitations and promises of the gospel calling upon men to believe in Jesus are addressed to all, and are true and applicable to all without exception." "I am persuaded that the doctrine of personal election is very plainly taught in Scripture; but I am equally persuaded that the minister misunderstands that doctrine who finds it, in the least degree, hampering him in presenting a full and a free salvation as the gift of God to every one who hears the Gospel; and that the man abuses the doctrine who finds in it anything which operates as a barrier in the way of his receiving, as a sinner, all the blessings of the Christian salvation, in the belief of the truth. Indeed when rightly understood, it can have no such effect."
No one can ever say the Gospel has nothing to say to me. Whoever means you, me, everyone. The Gospel addresses itself to all - Revelation 22 verse 17 "The Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let him who hears say, Come! Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life."
Isaiah 55 verses 1 - 3 "Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk, without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David."
Ezekiel 33 verse 11 "Say to them, As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn. Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?"
"Whoever" is such an encouragement to us all but it is also a frightening word because it leaves the sinner without excuse. No one will be able to appear before God on the day of judgment and say he longed to be saved and sought earnestly for salvation but was refused. "No" says the Bible, whoever believes will be saved. Jesus has promised in John 6 verse 37 "whoever comes to me I will never drive away."
Why will men not come to Jesus? John 6 verse 44 "no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." Ne one can come to Jesus because the power of sin renders them helpless. They are dead in sin and dead men can do nothing. Left to themselves, sinners will not come to God because they cannot. They need to be drawn and in the next verse Jesus explains what this means "everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me."
Drawing is the work of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. To souls dead in sin God begins to speak. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and gives the gift of faith which leads to repentance. It is not an emotional experience in church, though it can be part of it. The mind as well as the emotions are involved. The sinner listens and learns from the Father, said Jesus.
If God is drawing, what is it that God wants that person to do? Jesus wants to believe in him. Belief in the Bible is not just an intellectual response of the mind. The heart must be involved. Romans 10 verse 10 "for it is with your heart that you believe and are justified." Believing in the mind, that is accepting the truth concerning the facts of the gospel is crucial but it is not enough. James said even the devils believe in this way (James 2 verse 19) In Romans 10 Paul is not talking of a superficial confession accompanied by no more than a token faith. Belief in the heart refers to a faith that takes hold of the whole inner man.
Intellect - we believe the facts. We believe Jesus was born of the virgin. We believe in his deity and sinlessness. We believe he died for sinners and that God raised him from the dead.
Emotions - our belief is not a cold, matter of fact belief but it moves us. True belief will both thrill and frighten. We are thrilled to think God loves us and frightened to think of the consequence of not having Jesus as our Saviour.
Will - you act upon what you believe. Your belief causes you to flee in faith and repentance to Jesus.
All this is included in what it means to believe in Jesus. To believe means to have faith in Jesus.
Chapter 8 - Death or Life
In John 3 verse 16 we have seen the action of God and the response of man. This order is important for us to observe if we are to understand the nature of salvation. If God had not first loved us and given Jesus to die for us there could be nothing for us to respond to. We look now at the problem the Gospel seeks to erase and its ultimate achievement. This is all summed up in the biblical concept - perish and everlasting life.
The great purpose of the gospel is to prevent men and women from perishing. What does perish mean and why do we perish? The answer to why, is clear from the passage. It is the result of sin. Seen in the illustration of Moses and the snake. Why did the Israelites die in the desert? Because they were bitten by snakes? No. It was because they had sinned (the snakes were simply God`s means of bringing death). Verse 19 men love darkness because their deeds are evil. Death or perishing is God`s judgment upon human sin. God made this very clear before a single sin had been committed - "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good or evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2 verse 17)
So perishing means death which is the certain result of sin. It is the judgment of God`s holy wrath upon sin. Romans 5 verse 12 "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned."
Perish or death is the opposite to eternal life. Not the opposite of life, but to eternal life. Perish means far more than losing physical existence. Sin is a spiritual problem and its condemnation is a spiritual as well as a judicial act of God. Therefore its punishment is also spiritual and not merely physical.
The perishing indicates divine condemnation, complete and everlasting, so that the guilty sinner is banned from the presence and love of God and dwells forever in the presence of the wrath of God.
The bible uses picture language to describe hell but what is clear is that the fires of hell are the wrath of the holy God. It is the awfulness of sin that makes hell necessary but it is the holiness of God that creates hell. Hell is to be exposed without a Saviour, to the holiness of God for all eternity - 2 Thessalonians 1 verses 6 - 9, Hebrews 10 verses 27 - 31. In the New Testament it is Jesus who speaks mostly about hell and he has some terrible things to say about it, but by far the most terrible things to say about it, but by far the most terrible word that the Saviour used about hell is eternal. Hell is as eternal as heaven. There is no end to it. In life, even in the darkest moments there is always the hope that things will get better. There is no such hope in hell. Souls are lost forever.
That is what it means to perish and Jesus came to save us from that.
The adjective everlasting or eternal is used 17 times in John`s gospel and always the noun life. It speaks of a quality of life - "Now this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (chapter 17 verse 3) But it also speaks of duration of life, it is never ending. Eternal life starts not at death but at new birth. It starts when we know God. It is a quality of life experienced now, that is altogether different from life under the dominion of sin, and it is a foretaste, in a limited way, of heaven.
Heaven is the eternal dwelling place of all those who have been born again. it is a place where there is no sin, no pain, no suffering, because there the rule of God`s righteousness is complete and unchallenged. There we shall be free from the corruption of human nature. There we shall see Jesus face to face and be like him, not equal to him but like him in that sin will not dominate us. Everlasting life is everlasting happiness without the slightest shadow or blemish to it.
To know God transforms a person and introduces him to a life he could not otherwise experience. To know God is to have eternal life and this is what the gospel seeks to give us. God loved us for this purpose. God gave his Son to die on the cross so that we may know this.
Chapter 9 - The Sin of Unbelief
Why did God send Jesus into the world? Verse 17 it was not to condemn the world. He was speaking to a man steeped in Jewish tradition. One of these traditions was that the Messiah would come to punish the world, and world for them meant all nations except the Jews. They thought God loved them and hated all other people. Jesus flatly contradicts this. He said God loved the world and God sending his son was a display of love on God`s part to the human race.
Verse 18 Jesus makes the point that the world was condemned long before God sent his son into it. Jesus came to a world that was already under the wrath and judgment of God. It is a world of men and women, Jew and Gentile, who are alien to God - people who are, by nature, children of wrath because of their unbelief and rejection of God. Jesus confronts us with the worst sin that any human being can commit - it is the sin of unbelief.
J C Ryle "The most probable view is that it is a combination of clear intellectual knowledge of the gospel wth a deliberate rejection of it and willful choice of sin."
Unbelief is worst sin for several reasons: whereas most of our sins are directed at man and indirectly at God, unbelief is a sin directly against God. It does not involve man. When a man rejects the gospel of the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is not merely rejecting the views of a preacher or the doctrines of a church, he is rejecting God. Unbelief makes a mockery of God`s greatest work-salvation, and spurns some of God`s greatest attributes - love and mercy. Psalm 51 verse 4 David makes clear that all sin is against God but unbelief is a sin not only against the world and law of God but against the very character and nature of God.
Blatant unbelief and disguised unbelief - unbelief in 2 main guises.
Blatant unbelief - people who are determined never to believe in God - they say they will never become a Christian and reasons for such blatant unbelief are varied. There is the blatant unbelief that is based on intellect. It dismisses the Christian faith as intellectual rubbish. This viewpoint assumes that Christianity is so lacking in factual evidence and credibility that no thinking person could possibly believe it. Blatant unbelief clothes the sin of unbelief with a veneer of intellectual respectability but choose to ignore the fact that some of the greatest minds the world has ever known were bible believing Christians.
Disguised unbelief - characterised by a man like Nicodemus. It is belief in God that disguises an unbelief of God. Nicodemus believed in God. He knew there was a God and tried to serve and worship him. The Pharisees were enthusiastic in their religion but when God spoke clearly and distinctly through the scriptures and particularly through Jesus, they rejected it. They did not believe God.
The Pharisees believed God loved the Jews and hated the world.
The Pharisees believed the Messiah would be a political, military figure who would bring a national redemption to the Jews. These preconceived beliefs caused them to reject Jesus.
We also have our preconceived beliefs. We believe God is love, which is gloriously true but then we go on to reject any notion of divine judgment. We believe God only expects us to do our best and ignore the fact that his word says all our righteousness is as filthy rags to him (Isaiah 64 verse 7). We believe all religions lead to God and in effect call Jesus a bigoted liar for saying that He alone is the way to God and no one can come to the Father except through him (John 14 verse 6).
There are many who believe in God but they will not believe what God says in his word. Unbelief may hid itself under a guise of religious belief but God is not deceived.
Jesus clearly puts prime importance upon believing God. John 5 verse 24, 6 verse 35 and 20 verse 31.
From birth our sinful nature condemns us before God but God in Christ has provided an answer to this. In Christ our nature can be changed. We can be given a new birth and a new heart. We can be made new creations so that old things pass away and all becomes new. That is what the gospel offers us.
In John 3 Nicodemus was clearly an unbeliever. He believed in God but he was an unbeliever. He believed all you needed in order to be acceptabe to God was to be a Pharisee. He believed all you needed were the moral and religious duties of Pharisaism. As far as Jesus was concerned this meant that Nicodemus was an unbeliever and condemned already by God.
Chapter 10 - The Verdict
Jesus goes on in verse 19 to declare God`s verdict on man`s refusal to believe the gospel. The word verdict immediately leads us to a picture of a courtroom. The judge is there presiding over all the proceedings; the accused is in the dock; evidence is considered; witnesses are called and finally the verdict and the sentence are announced.
God is the judge and we are the accused. The evidence is our attitude to Jesus Christ - that is our unbelief. It is not our behaviour, not our morality, not our good deeds or our bad deeds, but our response to God sending His Son into the world to die on the cross for sinners.
All men are sinners by nature. Romans 5 verse 12 we sinned in Adam, so we are born in sin and this brings upon us the divine judgment of death - "therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all have sinned." Sin has placed us under the sentence of death before we hear the gospel.
In John 3 Jesus is dealing with the situation where sinners hear the gospel and refuse to believe in the name of God`s only begotten son. This court scene takes place now. The verdict is now. Jesus says, the verdict has been pronounced and unbelievers are condemned already. When the gospel comes to men it finds them already sinners under the wrath and judgment of God but it presents to them an answer to that judgment. In the gospel there is a full pardon offered to the vilest of sinners but that pardon depends upon a sinner believing in Jesus. Their unbelief brings upon them a new condemnation for which there is no remedy.
Jesus now proceeds to show us the fairness of God`s verdict. Men are born in sin, with a natural inclination to sin and it might be argued that if this is the case, can they be blamed. Yes they can because God did not leave men in that condition. He sent light into the spiritual and moral darkness that is man`s natural habitat.
Into this world so darkened by sin and into the minds of men so blinded by Satan, God in love and mercy and grace has sent light. And this light is Jesus. He came to dispel the darkness.
As the darkness of night retreats before the advancing light of the rising sun, so the darkness of sin cannot stand in the presence of the brilliant and dazzling holiness of Jesus, the light of the world. So Jesus is able to break the power of sin in human hearts and reconcile guilty sinners to God. When God sent Jesus as light into this world of sin it was the most wondrous thing he ever did. Even the sun shining in the heavens is but a dull glow compared to the light and beauty that radiates from Jesus.
So there is hope for sinners but men love darkness instead of light. Men prefer the things of depravity and spurn the light and beauty of Jesus. The reason for this rejection is not that the gospel is too obscure to be understood, nor is it that the gospel is too weakly supported with evidence to be believed. The reason, says Jesus, is because men`s deeds are evil.
Evil is a very strong word, one we reserve for the vilest actions of men. Jesus uses the same word to describe all unbelievers. Evil once again stresses how serious unbelief is. It is not just a matter of disagreeing with a doctrine or religious concept, it is a rejection of God and his gracious offer of salvation. Their way of life may not be outrageous and they may be decent people by the accepted standards of society, but on the Day of Judgment, when the secrets of all hearts are made known, it will reveal them, by God`s standards, to be evil.
In verse 20 Jesus goes a step further and declares that such people hate the light. He is not referring to some unbelievers but to all unbelievers. There are many unconverted people who profess to like the gospel. If a man does not hate the light of God why does he not totally and unreservedly embrace it and come in repentance and faith to Jesus?
Jesus gives only one answer - it is for fear that his deeds will be exposed. If a man keeps away from the light of God it is because his heart is all wrong. Some flee and hurl abuse and condemn the light. Others patronize it but keep it at arms length. Whatever reason men might give for remaining unbelievers they all stand under this verdict of God. Although man`s salvation is entirely due to the grace of God, man`s condemnation is his own fault. Light has come. Jesus has come. Atonement has been made for sin and guilt and salvation is offered freely to all, but men love darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil.
Darkness is the kingdom of Satan. It is bondage with an illusion of freedom, misery with a veneer of happiness and it will end in hell. If men prefer this to God`s light then the verdict cannot be argued with. There is no miscarriage of justice because this is the verdict of the Holy God not of some fallible human judge. Consequently there is no appeal and the verdict stands.
The gospel brings before God the judge something new for him to consider - Jesus stands and pleads for us. God the judge responds to the plea of his Son. He must respond because it is God himself who has instigated the gospel. He says, they are now acceptable to me but only because of Jesus. I pardoned them says the judge. I justified them. And as a result the verdict changes - they shall not perish but have eternal life.
Chapter 11 - Nicodemus: the born again Christian
Verse 2 Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. Probably because he did not want to be seen. He was a member of Pharisees, a group who were totally opposed to Jesus. Nicodemus was groping for the truth. It is clear he did not share the outright rejection of Jesus. He is not too keen for his gropings to be made public. Perhaps Jesus was a fraud. He was not sure and he did not want to make a public fool of himself so he talked under cover of darkness.
We do not know how this man reacted to the very straight and direct talking of Jesus. John 7 verse 50 - 2 years later and he is still groping for the truth. There is a difference. Now he publicly defends Jesus before his fellow Pharisees. Verse 47 Pharisees are furious with temple guards for not arresting Jesus "Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?" Nicodemus asks "Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he is doing? It was said at a time when it was sure to arouse a bitter response as it did. Nicodemus is not yet a believer in Jesus but clearly there is something going on in his heart and he is not now like the rest of the Pharisees.
John 19 verse 39 - 3 years after John 3. Nicodemus is now making an open stance for Jesus. With Joseph of Aramathea he takes the body of Jesus from the cross and prepares it for burial. Joseph had been a secret disciple of Jesus. His fear of the Jews kept him from making an open profession of faith but now all that changes.
Nicodemus was now a believer. It took 3 years after his initial meeting with Jesus and perhaps by then the other Christians had written him off or forgotten about him. Nicodemus confessed his love to Christ when Peter, James and Andrew had all run away.
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